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Dementia is expected to cost New Zealand billions of dollars in care costs, but there are caveats that efforts to keep people out of hospital are hampered by a shortage of funds and resources.
Sharon Brettkelly / Press room
Lisa Burns, Marketing Director for Dementia New Zealand.
“We are not going to have enough beds for dementia, so we have to come up with another plan to help people stay at home as long as possible,” says Dementia New Zealand Marketing Manager Lisa Burns.
Today she counts The detail about her own experiences with dementia in the family and her battle to bring the disease to the fore.
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Dementia will cost New Zealand billions, but there are caveats that efforts to keep people out of hospital are hampered.
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“I feel like it’s time, it’s time for us to be brave, it’s time for us to have this conversation, it’s time to bring insanity out of the shadows and shine a light on it and show people the joy that can still be lived.”
Burns speaks of the “heartbreaking” but futile search for a high-profile person with a connection to dementia to be the “ambassador” for the disease, in the same way that Sir John Kirwan spearheaded the campaigns on depression.
“I totally underestimated how difficult it was going to be. There are some incredible kiwis in this country that have a diagnosis of dementia. I wish we could get one of them to come forward and do what Sir John Kirwan has done.”
Burns says that people are not prepared to “step out of the shadows” because they want to protect the legacy of a loved one with the disease.
Sharon Brettkelly / Press room
Lisa Burns, Marketing Director for Dementia New Zealand.
She believes it is time to shed the stigma and speak out about a disease that affects four out of five New Zealanders and is projected to affect 170,000 people by 2050.
New Zealand, he says, is more than a decade behind world leaders like Scotland, who introduced a plan in 2007 that supports a person for the first 12 months after diagnosis and helps maintain a quality of life in the community.
Burns says a plan for the first year after diagnosis is “the only thing that makes a difference. If people can understand the diagnosis, they can get the right support, especially for the caregiver, the person can participate in activities that keep them social. and connected, it can be the difference between one and three years keeping them out of an advanced dementia care unit, out of crisis. “
